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To be fair though, I will only be using windows for the odd game that won't run in os x. So if it has to be XP then it doesn't really bother me too much...
 
Thank you for the reply. Perhaps I should have specified my question a bit better, but making the assumption that the application in use would push the computers to flex its muscles, what would the differences be in real world terms? For example, rendering an HD video. Would the difference be mere seconds? Or many seconds? Or even minutes?

Well the big difference is the core i7 has HT and the core i5 doesn't, if the programs you use can take advantage of HT then yes it will be a huge difference, but for most things you won't notice any difference, maybe a few seconds here and there.
 
Carressa: Now that the hoopla has died down a bit? What are your thoughts on the machine? Worth the purchase? Rather have the 7? Happy with the 5?

I'm curious since you've had it a day or so to play with..
 
I was setting up an i7 P55 860 2.8 GHz hackint0sh the other day just for fun and Geekbench score was around 9600. I was using 1300 MHz DDR3 though compared to the slower RAM in the Mac so I guess the numbers will be lower for the new iMac. My guesstimate is around 8000-8300 because I think they will also slightly detune it for thermal reasons. We'll see.
Slightly overclocking the i7 860 to 3 GHz netted 10'900+ Geekbench points.

Screenshot:
http://www.trick77.com/2009/10/03/dsdt-dsl-aml-gigabyte-p55-ud3/
(that's with oc from 2.8 to 3 GHz, not stock!)
 
Its a great feeling to finally get our macs isn't it? I got my i7 this morning too and i've been setting it up.... but i have to wait for my friend to bring over his firewire cable so I can xfer all my stuff to the new computer... so im just surfing the net on it now :)
 
I was setting up an i7 P55 860 2.8 GHz hackint0sh the other day just for fun and Geekbench score was around 9600. I was using 1300 MHz DDR3 though compared to the slower RAM in the Mac so I guess the numbers will be lower for the new iMac. My guesstimate is around 8000-8300 because I think they will also slightly detune it for thermal reasons. We'll see.
Slightly overclocking the i7 860 to 3 GHz netted 10'900+ Geekbench points.

Screenshot:
http://www.trick77.com/2009/10/03/dsdt-dsl-aml-gigabyte-p55-ud3/
(that's with oc from 2.8 to 3 GHz, not stock!)

Hmmm very nice. I doubt the 27 iMac would have the circulation to cool down an over clocked i7 860 at 3 GHz?
 
Carressa: Now that the hoopla has died down a bit? What are your thoughts on the machine? Worth the purchase? Rather have the 7? Happy with the 5?

I'm curious since you've had it a day or so to play with..

Well acutally its far better than I had hoped. The screen is just amazing I could really see the difference when sitting next to our 24" iMac. Going into it I was worried about all the problems and all the hype. But last night sitting there with every program I owned running smoothly without so much as a hiccup and the machine sitting there not even at 30% load... I'm not talking easy on the machine apps, i'm talking imovie,photoshop,iTunes,Vmware, WoW, Handbrake and all the others I can't seem to remember right now:p all running something at the same time...and had tons of CPU left!! And no heat problems and no HD grinding noises.. it was beautiful!
Do I wish I had the i7? Nope.. this i5 is going to cover my needs beautifully. I'm not out for bragging rights...I just want a good machine that rocks the apps I use on a daily basis. And hey, playing my games fully cranked was pretty dang nice! ;)
Worth the money? Oh hell ya! I am one happy woman!
 
Well acutally its far better than I had hoped. The screen is just amazing I could really see the difference when sitting next to our 24" iMac. Going into it I was worried about all the problems and all the hype. But last night sitting there with every program I owned running smoothly without so much as a hiccup and the machine sitting there not even at 30% load... I'm not talking easy on the machine apps, i'm talking imovie,photoshop,iTunes,Vmware, WoW, Handbrake and all the others I can't seem to remember right now:p all running something at the same time...and had tons of CPU left!! And no heat problems and no HD grinding noises.. it was beautiful!
Do I wish I had the i7? Nope.. this i5 is going to cover my needs beautifully. I'm not out for bragging rights...I just want a good machine that rocks the apps I use on a daily basis. And hey, playing my games fully cranked was pretty dang nice! ;)
Worth the money? Oh hell ya! I am one happy woman!

Maybe those of us contemplating shelling out the extra $200 for hyperthreading should reconsider if the i5 performs similarly on single threaded apps.
 
No sane person would overclock an iMac :)
:D


It depends on which generation you are talking about; now that the GPU and CPU have dedicated heatsinks some (minimal) OC'ing may be possible given the slightly raised thermal envelope.

Yeah that is an interesting thought, especially since the idle temp and temp under load seem to be fairly low. Anyone have an idea what speed the stock fans are rated at on the quad core?
 
Congratulations to all new iMac owners.

Can anyone please confirm the harddrive model used in the 27 inch iMacs?
 
Just a quick question to those who received their i5s and i7s... did those iMacs come with 10.6.2 already preloaded, or did you have to upgrade from 10.6.1? TIA!
 
10.6.1 and earlier don't support the new P55 chipset. Apple updated the kernel for 10.6.2 (to Darwin 10.2.0).
 
Wait, does that mean that the recovery discs that come with the quad iMacs are already 10.6.2?

Also, I already sold my 24" imac and am waiting for my own i7!!!!!!!!!!!

But, I have my "old" (only a 14 months old) mac backed up with Time Machine...where there be any issues with getting all my data off of it since it's definitely not 10.6.2? The only kind of restore I've done is a COMPLETE wipe of the harddrive and restore from Time Machine. Doesn't sound like we can do that in this case? Or, is it that Time Machine isn't really storing any OS specific files so when you do the restore, it takes the OS from the recovery DVD and then just restores my personal files and programs? Hoping for that! Though kind of interested in starting from scratch and just restoring some of my data and not any programs.
 
Wait, does that mean that the recovery discs that come with the quad iMacs are already 10.6.2?

I assume so... it simply can't be 10.6.0/10.6.1 because it simply wouldn't work. The new i5/i7 CPU IDs are not known to the older kernel (-> reboot loop).
 
I assume so... it simply can't be 10.6.0/10.6.1 because it simply wouldn't work. The new i5/i7 CPU IDs are not known to the older kernel (-> reboot loop).

Wow, really makes one think... 10.6.2 was released 11/09 - and the quads got shipped right around that time... so did they load them up with 10.6.2 at the last minute?? And made the recovery disks on the spot?? Not really possible - it takes a few days to ship and so on, and I doubt they installed the OS and someone was waiting to immediately take it on an airplane! I can't figure out the timing here...

What I suspect is the 10.6.2 on the quads is different from the wide release... someone upthread mentioned it's a different build number...

I hope it doesn't mean this build of 10.6.2 on the quads is an "early" imperfect one... usually later is better, and the wide release means that one was later...

Also: what about Safari? Did it come with 4.0.4 or did you have to upgrade? That one is even more obvious, since it only came out yesterday...
 
Well acutally its far better than I had hoped. The screen is just amazing I could really see the difference when sitting next to our 24" iMac. Going into it I was worried about all the problems and all the hype. But last night sitting there with every program I owned running smoothly without so much as a hiccup and the machine sitting there not even at 30% load... I'm not talking easy on the machine apps, i'm talking imovie,photoshop,iTunes,Vmware, WoW, Handbrake and all the others I can't seem to remember right now:p all running something at the same time...and had tons of CPU left!! And no heat problems and no HD grinding noises.. it was beautiful!
Do I wish I had the i7? Nope.. this i5 is going to cover my needs beautifully. I'm not out for bragging rights...I just want a good machine that rocks the apps I use on a daily basis. And hey, playing my games fully cranked was pretty dang nice! ;)
Worth the money? Oh hell ya! I am one happy woman!

Cool. Thanks for the reply and the review!
 
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